1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus used to sort, align and otherwise physically manipulate small objects. The present invention relates to devices that perform an operation on a work piece, said operation being dependent upon the alignment of the work piece. Generally, the present invention relates to devices used to segregate and align objects having a preferred axis of orientation from a reservoir of work pieces having random orientation on the preferred axis.
Specifically, the present invention is related to food handling equipment capable of sorting and aligning small animals to a preferred orientation and then dissecting the animal into a plurality of portions automatically. Still more specifically the present invention relates to an apparatus capable of sorting and aligning crustacea of the order macrura, commonly known as prawns or shrimp along their longitudinal axis so the anterior portion of said animal's exoskeleton may be mechanically detached from its muscular tail.
2. Background of the Prior Art
"Shrimp" is the name applied in general to smaller crustacea of the order macrura and in particular to various edible species found on the coasts of Northern Europe and in the Gulf of Mexico. Although most species are quite small, some even microscopic, a few reach a length of up to eight inches. Fisherman usually refer to the larger individuals as "prawns".
Although there are several hundred species of shrimp, the catch of the species peneus exceeds all others in magnitude and importance. The world's largest shrimp fishery is in the Gulf of Mexico, where several hundred million pounds are taken annually by United States, Mexican and Cuban fishermen.
Most shrimp are caught with boat-drawn beam and otter trawls. The shrimp catch is then stored on board ship and brought back to port. The shrimp are then deheaded by hand and their exoskeletons removed either by hand or machine. Alternatively the shrimp may be manually deheaded on board ship.
Both shrimp heads and the muscular tails are commercially valuable. Tails, either peeled or unpeeled are generally sold for human consumption. Shrimp bran is manufactured from dried heads and hulls and sold for animal feed.
Development of machines for removing hulls from shrimp meat caused a large expansion in the shrimp market in the United States, which is the world's largest producer and consumer of shrimp. Unfortunately, prior to the present invention, no mechanical means existed that could successfully and dependably dissect a shrimp's head from the muscular edible tail. At the present time, shrimp are deheaded manually. An interesting and informative insight into this aspect of commercial shrimp processing may be had by reading "Tales of Shrimp" by Stephen Harrigan that was printed in the July, 1975 issue of Texas Monthly magazine.
It will readily be appreciated that manual deheading of shrimp significantly raises the retail cost of shrimp and provides a production bottleneck between the shrimp boat and the eventual consumer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a mechanical means for automatically removing the head from a shrimp.
Yet another purpose of the present invention is to provide a mechanical means for removing the head from the muscular tail of a shrimp that operates dependably and rapidly.
Still another purpose of the present invention is to provide a means of removing heads from a catch of shrimp that requires a minimum of human attention and automatically selects, moves, orients and deheads the shrimp at a rate many times faster than is possible manually.
Yet still another purpose of the present invention is to provide a mechanical means for deheading shrimp that is capable of being mounted on a shrimp boat so a shrimp catch may be deheaded prior to being frozen and stored as cargo.
Yet still a further purpose of the present invention is to provide a mechanical means for deheading shrimp that is modular in construction so a plurality of deheading units may be driven by a single prime mover.
A final purpose of the present invention is to provide a mechanical apparatus that will rapidly and automatically dehead shrimp at a cost far lower than is possible using manual labor.